Power transmission chains constructed of a plurality of sets of links with the links of adjacent sets being interleaved with one another are well known in the art. In these chains, each link has a pair of spaced apertures, with the apertures of one set of links transversely aligned for registry with transversely aligned apertures in the interleaved sets of links. Groups of aligned apertures are thus formed, and adjacent sets of links are joined by insertion of a pivot means into each group of aligned link apertures. Such pivot means or joint member or members permit articulation of the chain. The pivot means can be round pins, a pair of pins, each pin of a pair of pins having a surface which rocks on the corresponding surface of the other, or other types of pivot means, as are known in the art. The latter type of pivot means can be designated as a pin and rocker, and the resultant joint as a pin and rocker joint. The pins and rockers can be of the same length, but many times they are of different lengths; they can be of the same cross-sectional shape and size, or of different cross-sectional shapes and sizes. The pivot means, whatever its type, must be retained in the assembly of links to hold the chain together. Well known methods of retaining pivot means in power transmission chains comprise riveting, using cotter pins, and press-fitting the pivot means in a link or links. In using the press-fit arrangement, guide links, flanking the outermost links, are frequently used, with the longer member of a pin and rocker joint being press-fit in a guide link aperture while the shorter member is retained, as a blind member, by the guide links themselves.
A more recent type of chain assembly is known as a chain-belt and is especially suitable for drivingly connecting the pulleys of a pulley transmission. A pulley transmission comprises at least a pair of spaced pulleys, each constructed of a pair of conical flanges. Some pulley transmissions commonly referred to as variable pulley transmissions are constructed so that the axial spacing of the pulley flanges can be varied to change the effective pulley diameters and thus vary the drive ratio therebetween. In a recent patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,730, a chain-belt is described as comprising a chain composed of sets of links interleaved with one another and joined by pivot means, with load blocks located between the adjacent pivot means. The load blocks are shaped to engage the pulley flanges and may be described as generally trapezoidal when viewed from the front. In constructing such a chain-belt, the pivot means need only be physically retained by being press-fit in those links defining one side edge of the chain of the chain-belt because the load blocks surround the chain and retain the links in the desired, transverse grouping.